LA KINGS HISTORY: Selecting defenseman Larry Murphy in the first round on the 1980 National Hockey League Entry Draft was a momentous occasion for the Los Angeles Kings. After all, they had a long history of trading away their first round picks and drafting poorly. But Murphy went on to become a star in the NHL, and a four-time Stanley Cup winner. The only problem, from a Kings perspective, was that, like so many others, Murphy went elsewhere to do it.

In the final installment of this series, Frozen Royalty spoke to Murphy about his time with the Kings, the friction with the coaching staff that started his problems with the team, and why he had to leave, a story that probably isn’t what you might expect.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Defenseman Larry Murphy burst onto the scene with the Los Angeles Kings in the 1980-81 season, making a huge, immediate impact, scoring 16 goals and adding 60 assists for 76 points in 80 games in his rookie season—he finished second in the Calder Memorial Trophy (rookie of the year) to the legendary Peter Stastny that season.

Murphy scored 22 goals and tallied 44 assists for 66 points in the 1981-82 season, followed by 14 goals and 48 assists for 62 points in the 1982-83 season.

The “Spin-O-Rama” move will not be permitted for penalty shots or shootouts.

Crack down on diving/embellishment. Players who are repeat offenders and their head coaches will be subject to an initial warning and increasing fines for subsequent incidents.

NHL Hockey Operations (the Situation Room in Toronto) has been given broader authority to assist on-ice officials in determining the legitimacy of all potential goals, “…to ensure they are ‘good hockey goals.’”

Of the most significant rule changes, the NHL has given us two good changes along with one bad one.

COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS: The Los Angeles Kings had a likely victory snatched from them by on-ice officials in Detroit on January 18, when video replay showed that a Detroit goal should not have been allowed. Was the right call made? Should the goal have been reviewable? What’s next?

Photo courtesy
National Hockey League

LOS ANGELES — On January 18, forward Jeff Carter scored a power play goal at 17:45 of the third period to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings…

At least, that is probably the way the lead for a recap of this game should have read. Instead, the Red Wings pulled out a 3-2 shootout victory after the officials allowed a goal at 19:33 of the third period by Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall that never should have counted.

On that highly controversial play, Kronwall got the puck at the top of the slot and fired a slapshot that deflected off of Kings center Jarret Stoll’s stick. The puck ricocheted high into the air, hitting near the top of the protective netting behind the Kings net. It then dropped, bounced off of Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick’s back, and wound up in the net.

At that point, referee Rob Martell pointed to the net, indicating that a goal had been scored.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — The Los Angeles Kings are heading into Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the San Jose Sharks on May 14 (7:00 PM PDT, Staples Center) knowing that were not at the top of their game in the first round of the playoffs against the St. Louis Blues. To be sure, the Kings have not looked much like the team that won the 2012 Stanley Cup Championship.

“I don’t know if we’ve played like that yet,” said defenseman Drew Doughty. “I think we still have a long way to go. We were OK in the St. Louis series. We weren’t great. We didn’t play to the best of our abilities, so we’ve got a lot to work on, and we’ve got to start doing it in this series.”

“Our defensive zone coverage, composure with the puck under fast, quick pressure, heavy pressure, like we saw in the first round, I don’t think we handled it too well,” said center Jarret Stoll. “We need to be a lot better in that area. We relied on our goaltender too much. He was great, he was awesome for us, but we need to be better in that area, and just bearing down, offensively. We had some chances that went by. We scored some timely goals, but I think we could’ve put more pucks in the net, and we didn’t.”

LOS ANGELES — Anze Kopitar scored a highlight reel goal at 15:12 of the third period while Jonathan Bernier was stopping 32 shots to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 27.

The Kings got off to a rather lethargic start, but Bernier was up to the task until Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey bounced a shot from the left wing boards off of Bernier’s mask. The puck then fluttered over and behind him, bouncing off his back and into the net at 9:42 of the first period.

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